Where in our soul does love reside?

I don't know. But it sure is painful.

Até nunca, Maganja da Costa. You taught me more than any other experience and have meant more to me than any love I've ever had.

Beijos,
Jorgie

AHHHHHHH!!! The end is near!!!!?!?!?

I haven't written a post in a while...and that's because I've been seriously busy doing a lot of random different things. This might actually be my last post until my cos week. So much to do, so little time...

So...my English theater group got second place and two of my students received the trophies for best actor and best actress. Faruk, the best actor, was a drunken mess of a slacker and Maria, the best actress, was the female student trying to create a future for herself. It was fun.

I travelled to Ilha de Mozambique. Took two days to get there, stayed there for one day, and then it took two days to get back to site. It was fun though. It was a good last trip in-country.

Last night, my coordenator dropped by my house but Cam and I weren't home. She told the owner of our house to let us know she came by. I texted her, but she didn't respond until 5am this morning. I was out training capoeira with one of my students, so I didn't see her text until after I got back and showered, which was around 0630h. Turns out Cam and I are supposed to have a meeting with our Quelimane supervisor, who's planning to visit our site today, at 0730h.

Fat chance he'll actually be here at 0730h though.

So...I'm going to just continue with my original plan for the day and if he shows up I'll deal with him then. What a freaking booger of a supervisor. It really is impossible to work for someone whom you don't respect.

One of my orphans broke his friend's telephone. He came to me looking for help, and I told him I wouldn't just straight up give him the money but he could work for me and I'd pay him. So...he's coming in at 8am to do random ish for me. I'm also filming for a random kung fu film with my students at 9am. Heh heh, it'll be fun. They're so freaking funny.

Ok, I have to go prep breakfast now.

Tchauzinho...

A week of blazing glory...

So...my time back in the states is coming to a close...I came back just for Mike's wedding, but being the best man at my buddy's wedding is a once in a life time opportunity, so there's no way I would've missed it.

The bachelor party weekend was cool. We swung off a cliff in yosemite and went mountain biking at north star. Reno is pretty ghetto. South tahoe was whatevs. Somehow Mike decided to christen me "Teardrop".

The wedding was sweet. I actually enjoyed running around helping out Mike with random errands. I was totally plastered for the toast, but I think it turned out alright. It kinda sucked that the dancing was so short though, we had to stop at 9:30pm. Butttt, chilling with some new friends until 5ish in the morning was tight. I picked up a new nickname due to my weird antics and drinking abilities..."King of Africa".

Watched Insidious with Mike last night. Then, to get over the chills, we watched Black Snake Moan. From horror to whorish. It was a good mix...but when I drove home I still had the creeps. I really hope I'm not good at astral projection.

It's been nice being back in the states, eating and hanging out with old friends, but I'm ready to come back to Mozambique. As with always, so much to do but so little time.

Ack, going rock climbing at Point Dume now. Gotta go, catch ya later...

I Am Not a Purple Pineapple

In the spirit of the events which unleashed themselves upon me yesterday, I would like to rant and rave and complain.

But, since I have already spent an hour pacing around my hotel room talking to myself, I will not do that.

Instead, I will utter gouts of randomness.

I need to buy rat traps. I don't know where to buy them though. Ugh.

I wanted to start working on my resume. I guess I can...but it's weird thinking about stuff I've done in the US while I'm still in Moz. Maybe I should focus more on debriefing myself on stuff that I've done while here.

Thinking about all the things I have to do in the next forty days makes me tired. Write reports, take care of random stuff for my youth group, set up connections with new organizations that are starting to do work in my community, reconnect with my own NGO and plan out the integration of my volunteer replacement...day-long flights, bachelor party, wedding stuff, optometrist appointment, and personal errands to do in the states...write a resume, start applying to jobs, taking care of last minute projects and sightseeing for the last time...

I'm hungry. I do have a delicious pizza next to me. I guess I should eat it. Ok, I shall eat it.

Onward ho!

A period of overlap...

So...I just got back from helping out for a week and a half at the Moz 16 pst.

It was fun.

And now I'm prepping for the COS conference.

Yay.

Josh tired.

Well...at least life isn't dragging on like it was last year. The second year of service is definitely better than the first.

Have I talked about the rat problem in my house?

A couple weeks ago, I woke up because I felt something warm and furry snuggling against my knee. I nudged it with my knee, and it jumped. Then, it returned to snuggling against my knee. I yelled and then quickly put on my glasses and used the light from my cell phone to illuminate my surroundings. Lo and behold, it was a rat. At the appearance of the luminescence, it scurried up my mosquito net and clung to the top portion of it. I escaped from the confines of my mosquito net and turned on the light. The rat swayed to and fro for a bit, but then decided to just stay hanging at the top part of my net. I picked up a stick (which I had been using for my shoe rack) and busted a Hank Aaron on the poor mammal. Upon impact the vagabond squeaked and wriggled and then fell. It didn't move after landing, but I decided to give it one more whack just for good measure.

Bad call.

Blood splattered everywhere. I had to remove my net, dump the rat remains in the trash pit outside, and then spend the rest of the night without a mosquito net. In the morning, I woke up with quite a few mosquito bites, but I still prefer that over sleeping with rat blood in my face.

I'm not sure if I ever blogged about the first rat I killed, but that one met its end by eating a tomato laced with rat poison. It actually landed on my pillow, after dropping from the ceiling, as it wriggled with its death throes...just to spite me.

My future sitemate/roomie wants me to solve the rat problem, but I'm not really too keen on evicting the critters. I'd probably have to get a cat, and cats usually equal ticks and fleas.

On a completely different note, I am completely convinced that having a rat tail was a good way to keep females away from me. Well, kind of.

Oh, wrath of the rat...beware of the cat...

A Retrospective Introspection

I think my face isn't the same as it was two years ago.

Actually, I know my face isn't the same as it was two years ago. But what weirds me out more is that I, myself as a person, am not the same as I was two years ago. Well perhaps not that fact in particular, but more the extent of the difference.

Enough of that train of thought.

So, time is coming to a close and...I'm ready for the close...but I'm somewhat dreading what's to come after the close. Well, dreading in an optimistic kind of way. So many opportunities...for me to screw up...and pass up to take on other opportunities. The world is my large, multi-pearled oyster.

Chega com isso tambem.

She's so hot!

Deixa-la...

So...mindprint: I just finished reading Altered Carbon yesterday, I'm currently reading The Audacity of Hope and an african book in portuguese, I have to write a month and trimester report for my NGO, I have to help my highschool group write a theatre piece about gender inequality, I have to sort out the particulars of our next school newspaper...end of mindprint.

I miss video games. I miss food.

But I do like my super-flexible schedule and the clean air.

Am I going to stay in LA when I get back?

Ha duvida.

Ok, time to move on with my day.

A little peace and quiet...

So. Here I am.

When I arrived in this province, there were seven of us (PCVs) assigned to the same I-NGO. As of a few days ago, I am officially the last of these seven left in the country. Is it lonely being the last? Hell yeah.

But, I've been lucky and my situation has been different from the situations of my colleagues. I don't really want to get into the details or whatnot, but suffice it to say that I'm not planning on leaving before my due time. Which is about four months from now.

Geez, time has been flying by.

So much has changed in the past year: My house has electricity, I no longer have orphans sleeping in my kitchen, I actually have a counterpart, I'm not afraid of walking around in public (I don't get as many stares as I used to...or maybe I'm just getting used to the stares), and I'm actually eating again. Gone are the days of living on nik-naks and roasted peanuts...I'm enjoying a healthy goat stew with cabbage and potatoes for lunch.

Yes yes...life is good.

But...I have to admit, I am going to be happy to come home. At least, I think so.

On a sidenote, today is this country's independence day. Usually, that means a lot of heavy drinking. I have to play in a village basketball game later on in the day though, so I'm just going to play it sober.

Oh yeah, on Tuesday I ate mangrove snails, mandioca paste, and a goat head (including the brain). So if I come down with any weird disease some time soon, keep that in mind when they're diagnosing me.

Alright, tchau for now.

Back in the groove...

So...after three days of having high-speed internet, I've realized that my brain has finally reacclimated and devolved back into the state of constant and unperceivable randomness. Is this a good thing? Probably not. But, no worries, all will be well once again when I am fondling my sweet sweet guitar and she sings out all my pent up emotions.

Sidenote: I watched the Airbender movie today. Ugh, everyone was right...it is pretty bad.

Otherside note: My braid is getting to the point where I can't turn my head quickly without it swinging around and whacking the side of my neck. I'm starting to wonder if it will continue to be a nuisance, no matter how long it becomes.

Underside note: This other hole business is really painful. I really want it to heal.

Topside note: Why are the females in this country so freaking curvy?

Center note: One of these days I'm going to finally run out of things to worry about or at least I'll find that I just don't give a crap about what happens.

Not really a note: I have serious saudades for two things at this moment...working out and my guitar. Let me come back to site please!!!!!!

Ugh...first you get to site and you hate it...then you start to accept your fate and you cope with it...and then you get to the point where you don't know how to live without site.

It's just like a relationship! Except, maybe in the reverse order. HA! Relationships...

Oh...I'm going to stop right there. But seriously, I'm going crazy after being away from site for two weeks. How are my kids doing? How are the machambas going? Is it raining? Are the crops growing? How's the capoeira group training? Did weekend basketball already start? How's my counterpart doing? Did my coordenator finally get the seeds we requested? What's new with the activista groups? Is that annoying girl still trying to get into my quintal?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*crying* I just want to go back to site...